Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I join with my colleagues in calling for a debate on the revised programme for Government. It is essential we have such a debate because our country is broke and we are borrowing €400 million per week to stay afloat. We face the prospect of 500,000 people unemployed and negative equity becoming a reality for tens of thousands of homes. This programme for Government is grounded in the desire to stay in office for as long as possible.

I want the following questions answered in the debate which I ask the Leader to organise. How much money will this new programme for Government cost? We spent the first half of this year in convulsions because we had no money to spend but suddenly over a weekend money was found out of nowhere to do all that is in the programme. How will that enable us to lead our country through the harsh decisions which must be made in order for us to survive and for my children not to face the prospect of emigration which I, and my predecessors, faced?

From where will the money for this programme come? What taxes will increase? What will be cut? If those questions are not answered, the programme for Government is not only fiction but it will set us back because it will add to the perception that this Government and those around it will do whatever is needed to stay in office for as long as possible.